Autobiographical or not?

Vincent is the story of a young boy, Vincent Malloy, who pretends to be like the actor Vincent Price (who narrates the film). He is obsessed with the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and it is his detachment from reality when reading them that leads to his delusions that he is in fact a tortured artist, deprived of the woman he loves, mirroring certain parts of Poe’s “The Raven”. The film ends with Vincent being tortured by the goings-on of his make-believe world, quoting “The Raven” as he falls to the floor in frailty, believing himself to be dead.

source: www. wikipedia.org

Interesting facts:

The technique used in this film is called stop-motion which is one of the earliest special effects in film. Dead objects are filmed frame per frame while moving the objects little by little. A movement-effect appears when 24 frames are being played per second. A few of the pioneers in stop-motion are Ray Harryhausen and Willis O’Brien but the artful technique is still being used in film and commercials.

One of Tim Burton’s biggest idols from his childhood is horror-actor Vincent Price. A dream came true for Tim when Price agreed to read the story. Price said later that the film “was the most gratifying thing that ever happened. It was immortality–better than a star on Hollywood Boulevard”

The cat seen in the beginning of ‘Vincent‘ (see also our menu on the top) is also seen in ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas‘. It’s the cat jumping onto the trashcans early in the movie.

The ‘Vincent‘-Poem, written by Tim Burton.
Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Raven‘ and Children’s stories by Dr. Seuss.

Vincent Malloy is seven years oldHe’s always polite and does what he’s toldFor a boy his age, he’s considerate and niceBut he wants to be just like Vincent Price

He doesn’t mind living with his sister, dog and catsThough he’d rather share a home with spiders and batsThere he could reflect on the horrors he’s inventedAnd wander dark hallways, alone and tormented

Vincent is nice when his aunt comes to see himBut imagines dipping her in wax for his wax museum

He likes to experiment on his dog AbercrombieIn the hopes of creating a horrible zombieSo he and his horrible zombie dogCould go searching for victims in the London fog

His thoughts, though, aren’t only of ghoulish crimesHe likes to paint and read to pass some of the timesWhile other kids read books like Go, Jane, Go!Vincent’s favourite author is Edgar Allen Poe

One night, while reading a gruesome taleHe read a passage that made him turn pale

Such horrible news he could not surviveFor his beautiful wife had been buried alive!He dug out her grave to make sure she was deadUnaware that her grave was his mother’s flower bed

His mother sent Vincent off to his roomHe knew he’d been banished to the tower of doomWhere he was sentenced to spend the rest of his lifeAlone with the portrait of his beautiful wife

While alone and insane encased in his tombVincent’s mother burst suddenly into the roomShe said: “If you want to, you can go out and playIt’s sunny outside, and a beautiful day”

Vincent tried to talk, but he just couldn’t speakThe years of isolation had made him quite weakSo he took out some paper and scrawled with a pen:“I am possessed by this house, and can never leave it again”His mother said: “You’re not possessed, and you’re not almost deadThese games that you play are all in your headYou’re not Vincent Price, you’re Vincent MalloyYou’re not tormented or insane, you’re just a young boyYou’re seven years old and you are my sonI want you to get outside and have some real fun.”

Her anger now spent, she walked out through the hallAnd while Vincent backed slowly against the wallThe room started to swell, to shiver and creakHis horrid insanity had reached its peak

He saw Abercrombie, his zombie slaveAnd heard his wife call from beyond the graveShe spoke from her coffin and made ghoulish demandsWhile, through cracking walls, reached skeleton hands

Every horror in his life that had crept through his dreamsSwept his mad laughter to terrified screams!To escape the madness, he reached for the doorBut fell limp and lifeless down on the floor